Wall Street Journal | February 9, 2011 | Shayndi Raice
Chinese equipment-maker Huawei Technologies Co. and its U.S. partner Amerilink Telecom Corp. have significantly scaled back their partnership, leaving the future of the U.S. firm in question.
The companies are still working on joint sales opportunities, but the secure delivery program jointly developed to address U.S. national security concerns is no longer in place.
The two companies entered a joint bid last year for a multi-billion contract at Sprint Nextel Corp. to upgrade the company’s network infrastructure. Sprint decided against awarding the business to the Chinese company.
Amerilink was the brainchild of William Owens, former vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and former chief executive of Nortel. He brought Kevin Packingham, a former Sprint executive, on board as Amerilink’s CEO, and a handful of other former Sprint employees.
“When we didn’t succeed with the Sprint bid, the thrust of what we were trying to do with Amerilink was far less relevant,” said Mr. Owens. He said the company has substantially trimmed back its operations and is now providing only a “modicum of support” to Huawei.
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